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Unknown Territories
The strategy of social media usage by law enforcement agencies
Azi Lev-On
School of Communication
Ariel University
Israel
e-mail: Azilevon@gmail.com
Gal Yavetz
Department of Information Science
Bar-Ilan University
Ramat-Gan, Israel
e-mail: Gal.javetz@gmail.com
Abstract— The article explores the perceptions of senior police
officers concerning the place of social media in the current
media ecology, and the desired mode of operation of the police
within them. The study demonstrates that the different forms
of social media are perceived as significant arenas in the
contemporary media landscape, which are "here to stay" and
the police has a "duty of presence" in them. Still, this presence
should focus primarily on information-providing and image-
enhancing activities, avoiding "confrontations" about
contested issues.
Keywords- Social Media; Police; Public Administration.
I. INTRODUCTION
New media, especially social media, enable government
agencies to communicate with citizens and disseminate
information fast and directly, recruit people and organize
collective actions. Such uses may have implications for the
character of relationships between citizens and
governments, as well as for how citizens perceive
government agencies' image.
One of the public institutions that are constantly in
contact with citizens is the police. The main research
question in this paper is how senior police officers perceive
the use and impact of online social media. For this purpose,
15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with police
officers in the rank of Major General and above, who
finished their service in the Israeli police from 2006
onwards.
The Findings demonstrate that the interviewees recognize
online social media as a centerpiece of the contemporary
media landscape, with significant possibility to impact the
image of the police. According to the interviewees, the
police digital strategy should focus primarily on
information-providing and image-enhancing activities,
while avoiding confrontations on contested issues.
Section II of the paper presents the theoretical background
and research literature on the adoption and use of social
media by public agencies, especially law enforcement
agencies such as police, and the advantages and implications
of using such environments. Section III presents the main
research goals and questions. Section IV presents the
method. Section V reviews the preliminary findings.
Sections VI concludes the paper.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Social media are becoming important intermediaries
between public institutions and citizens [1]. The usage of
social media by public institutions may enable them to
disseminate and receive information quickly and efficiently,
recruit people for various purposes, interact more closely
with the public, and possibly improve decision-making and
problem-solving processes [2]. Still, public institutions are
often known for their rigid hierarchical structures and
bureaucratic red tape, and less for their excellence in service
provision and adaptation to new technologies [3]. Hence, no
wonder they are considered late and limited adopters of new
and, particularly, social media.
The use of social media by the police, like its usage by
other public institutions, can have many advantages.
Information can be sent quickly to many people without
mediation, such as information on missing persons [4].
Information can also be efficiently received from people and
organizations, including complaints against the police or
against private individuals, or information on crimes and
suspects [4][5]. Social media can also assist in mobilizing the
public and enable public participation in planning processes.
These uses can significantly improve the work of the police,
improve its contact with the public, and also contribute to its
image [6]. But while significant literature addresses the
usage of social media by the police, there are very few
studies that address the perceptions of decision-makers in the
police about the place of social media in the current media
ecology, and the desired mode of their operation.
III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. How do senior police officers perceive social media? Is it
a passing phenomenon or a permanent component of the
current media ecology?
2. According to the senior officials' perception, what should
the goals of the police activity on social media be?
IV. METHODOLGY
In order to answer the research questions, semi-structured
interviews were conducted with policemen from the rank of
Major General and above, who finished their service in the
police from 2006 onwards. This study only deals with senior
68Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-61208-685-9
ICDS 2019 : The Thirteenth International Conference on Digital Society and eGovernments
police officers, due to their broader and more in-depth
perspective on the organization's needs and the factors
influencing the police-citizen relationship. The officers were
selected based on their year of retirement. Since Facebook
(the main social platform in Israel) has only been open to the
public since 2006, only the policemen who served in the
police this year onwards dealt with the question of relations
between the police, social media and citizens.
15 senior police officers were interviewed. Most of the
interviews were conducted in person, in a location chosen by
the interviewees. In only a few cases where there were
technical difficulties or unwillingness of the interviewees to
hold a face-to-face meeting, telephone interviews were
conducted. The interviews were semi-structured, consisting of
15 questions and lasting between 40 minutes and 2 hours.
Interviews were used to present the phenomenon through the
participants' perceptions and their own words [7]. The
interviews were recorded and transcribed. A thematic
categorical division of these transcriptions was performed, in
order to identify, evaluate and report prominent themes [8].
V. PRELIMINARY FINDINGS
Many of the interviewees made it clear that in their
opinion, social media activity should be an important and
strategic goal for the organization, and that more resources
should be invested in it. Interviewee I-1 declared that social
media are significant tools for building public trust:
"Improving service to the citizenry is critical for your ability
to generate trust, and we should definitely use the new media
platform [for this purpose]"
Interviewee I-6 described social media as important sources
of information for the police to convey to citizens:
"The police is disseminating all kinds of messages on
Facebook, and we have to do this systematically and
correctly. Both extract information and disseminate
information..."
This kind of two-way communication and information
streams require investment and proper resources, as
interviewee I-6 said:
"It cannot be that there is a social conversation on social
media and the police are not involved, the organization has
to invest in it. Investing means getting more people, teams,
standards and enacting new policies.”
Despite the statements about the importance of police
activity on social media, most respondents expressed
reservations about bi-directional and dialogical behavior, and
believed that the activity should mainly be with an emphasis
on providing information and positions [9] rather than
conducting conversations with the public. They argue that
brief and practical responses are sufficient without waiting
for a response from the public or addressing such responses
further.
Interviewee I-5 argues that it is desirable for the police to
respond to such public concerns but only briefly and only in
its page:
"You cannot run after anyone who posts something in any
Facebook group about you. Maybe in some exceptional
cases an official police representative, needs to intervene in
the discussion, and provide a link and tell everyone, 'Guys,
come on read the facts'".
However, most of the interviewees did not see even such a
minimal response as useful. For example, Interviewee I-9
does not see the need to participate in any discussion with
the public about police matters:
"I would present the position of the police in a very solid
and precise manner and let time do its work. I would not
participate in the conversation itself…. This discourse will
exhaust itself sooner or later, and the fact that we react and
participate in this discourse, that is the fuel for the fire."
VI. CONCLUSIONS
The paper studies perceptions of senior police officers
about the place and usage of online social media, in the
contemporary media ecology. Findings show that the
interviewees recognize online social media as a centerpiece
of the contemporary media landscape, with significant
consequences in terms of the abilities to send and receive
information, which can impact the image of the police. At
the same time, there is a clear concern about the possible
fallbacks of entering long conversation with citizens, where
officers prefer a minimal response approach in such cases.
Future studies can examine the perceptions of senior
decision-makers in other public organizations regarding
online social media, and also investigate the 'customers' side:
What are the citizens' perceptions of this activity, and how
exposure to it influences opinions and attitudes towards the
police.
REFERENCES
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internet portals evolving towards more interaction, participation,
and collaboration? Revisiting the rhetoric of e-government among
municipalities’, Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 29, pp. S72–S81, Jan. 2012.
[2] G. F. Khan, B. Swar, and S. K. Lee, ‘Social Media Risks and
Benefits: A Public Sector Perspective’, Soc. Sci. Comput. Rev.,
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[3] O. Serrat, ‘Social Media and the Public Sector’, in Knowledge
Solutions, Singapore: Springer Singapore, 2017, pp. 925–935.
[4] Ministry of Public Security, ‘Social Media and an Interactive
Police Force – Police 2.0’, 2012.
[5] A. Meijer and M. Thaens, ‘Social media strategies:
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[6] J. Crump, ‘What Are the Police Doing on Twitter? Social
Media, the Police and the Public’, Policy Internet, vol. 3, no. 4, pp.
1–27, Jan. 2011.
69Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-61208-685-9
ICDS 2019 : The Thirteenth International Conference on Digital Society and eGovernments
[7] A. Shkedi, Words that try to touch: Qualitative research theory
and practice. Tel-Aviv: Ramot, 2003.
[8] V. Braun and V. Clarke, ‘Using thematic analysis in
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[9] I. Mergel, ‘Social media adoption and resulting tactics in the
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70Copyright (c) IARIA, 2019. ISBN: 978-1-61208-685-9
ICDS 2019 : The Thirteenth International Conference on Digital Society and eGovernments
